Girlfriend
by BandGeek99
Summary: As his automail is being repaired, Edward muses on the last time he was in the Rockbell attic. A young Ed and Winry discuss growing up during the final weeks of his rehab and Edward finds a "girlfriend".


**I came up with this over the course of a few hours after marching band. It doesn't really have much of a point, but I always wanted to write and Edward-and-Winry-as-preteens, and I always wanted to write an Edward-and-Winry-first-kiss moment...**

**So I wrote it. :) I hope you enjoy it. Not really meant to be that serious.**

*****IMPORTANT NOTES*****

**Alphonse HAS HIS BODY back.**

**Edward MADE IT BACK on his own (minus some help from Colonel--excuse me, GENERAL Bastard and Al). The year in Amestris is 1916. If Ed was born in 1899... YOU do the math.**

**Winry decided to head back to Risembool from Rush Valley to help out her grandmother in her old age and to take over the family automail business.**

*****END IMPORTANT NOTES*****

**-----**

"YOU BROKE IT AGAIN?!"

The cries of an anguished automail mechanic could be heard from across all of Risembool.

Edward Elric stood at the doorway to the Rockbell Automail Shop, wincing as he saw the girl he'd grown up with fuming in the doorway. After all, the saying went,_ Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned_, and to Winry, smashing her automail "masterpieces" to bits was scorn, no doubt.

Her usually cheery expression was contorted into that of pure rage, and she gripped her wrench so tightly in her gloved hand that Edward was convinced she'd dent it with nothing but her fingers.

"Look, it wasn't my fault this time, I swear to you!" he protested feebly, waving his flesh hand in a way that screamed "don't kill me yet!"

"Somehow, Edward," she stated darkly, "I don't believe you." She grabbed the lapel of his jacket and yanked him inside the door. "Let's get this over with," she growled, dragging him up the stairs into her private workshop.

It was a small attic room, cluttered with sketches and designs, and a desk, a futon, and a tool chest decorated the walls. Photographs and old boxes of junk littered the floor and table space, and a large chest filled with automail parts stood open beside the desk.

Winry dragged Edward towards the desk and forced him down on top of one of the boxes. "I'm taking your arm off to fix it, and when I end up refitting it, _don't move_."

The slightly taller blonde nodded mutely and did as he was told, letting Winry get to work taking off what remained of his automail and laying it out.

There was silence in the small room as Winry tinkered with the remains. "Boy, you smashed it pretty good, didn't you?" she remarked, somehow amazed at the new and exciting ways to bust up his arm.

"Yeah, it kinda got crushed under a train," he said with a nervous laugh. He was going to get it…

"Crushed under a _train_?" Winry repeated, staring at him with wide, somewhat fearful eyes.

"Erm… yes?" The seventeen-year-old chuckled nervously and rubbed the back of his neck with his flesh hand.

"UNDER A TRAIN?! EDWARD, YOU'RE GOING TO GET YOURSELF KILLED DOING STUPID THINGS LIKE THAT!" Winry hollered at him, slapping him upside the head with her gloved hand.

"I'm not gonna _die_, now stop yelling!" Edward snapped, ducking away as soon as the hand made contact with his cranium.

Winry glared at him. "Be thankful it wasn't my _wrench_ I hit you with, otherwise I'd've killed you by now."

"Yeah, I kinda figured."

"Shut up."

He complied.

Silence reigned once more, broken only by the occasional cuss from Winry when she misconnected a wire or hurt herself with a wrench.

"Hey, Winry?" Ed asked suddenly, staring at a wall of photographs near one of the dusty windows.

"What?" she asked automatically.

"You remember the last time we were up here together?" he asked, smiling ever so slightly.

She paused for a second, her eyes still focused on the automail before her. "Um…"

"Don't tell me you've forgotten all about it!" he said with mock surprise.

"I-I don't wanna talk about it," she said stiffly.

Edward grinned and leaned back cockily against the wall. "Let's see… What happened that day…"

_A twelve-year-old boy and a twelve-year-old girl sat in the attic bedroom, chatting on the dusty twin-sized bed._

"_Your rehab is almost done," the girl noted. "Just a couple more weeks. I'm really surprised that you're not still writhing in pain or something." She smiled gently at him._

_He shrugged. "Eh. I'm tough. It didn't hurt _that_ bad."_

_She cocked an eyebrow. "Really now, Edward?"_

_Edward closed his eyes and tilted his head back in a nonchalant manner. "Really, Winry," he replied right back._

"_Then I guess you're still wanting to go to Central and be a big strong alchemist?" she said, the words spewing from her mouth full of disdain._

_Edward looked back at her, his golden eyes piercing her blue ones with a glare to rival the devil's. "Yes."_

"_Why?" she asked, shaking her head at him. "Why would you sell your soul into becoming that stupid Fuhrer's lapdog? All state alchemists do…" As she thought of it, her eyes welled up heavily. "All they do is kill. They're made to kill people because they _can_. They're machines, they aren't even human. They aren't human, Edward!" she shrieked, grabbing his lapels and shaking him desperately. Tears streamed freely down her cheeks and she looked into his eyes, silently pleading with him to think rationally._

_He watched her for a minute, then silently put his arms around her awkwardly. "Sorry, Winry. But I gotta do it."_

_She nodded into his shoulder, loosening her grip on his lapels. Her thin shoulders shook with quiet sobs and Edward, swallowing his pride, rocked her back and forth, muttering "Shush, Win… Relax… Come on…" over and over again, just as his mother had done for him whenever he'd been upset. Both his metal and flesh hand rubbed small circles on her back. "Don't cry," he insisted. "I hate watchin' you cry."_

"_You-you do?" the girl sniffed, looking up at him with puffy eyes._

_He blushed. "Um… Yeah?" It sounded like a question, but the blonde girl could tell he meant it._

_She smiled and tucked her face into his metal shoulder. "Thanks. I think."_

_He scoffed. "You think."_

_The two stayed that way for a while, waiting until Winry's sniffles subsided to start talking again._

"_You know that you're gonna have to be a grown-up, right?" Winry said quietly, still not tilting her head to look at him._

"_Yeah, I know. And I don't care. I just… I just want it all to go back to the way it was. And being a state alchemist can help me get as close as I can. So I don't care if I have to be a grown-up."_

_Winry pulled away slightly, but only enough so that she could look him in the eye. "Really? You aren't gonna miss all the kid stuff we used to do? Like tag and playing house and stuff?"_

"_I'm _never_ going to miss playing house. That was torture."_

"_Come on, you had fun, and you know it!" Winry protested._

"_Did not."_

"_Did too!"_

"_Whatever," Ed muttered, looking at a pile of old, moth-eaten blankets in the corner._

"_Aren't you gonna miss growing up, too? I mean, you'll never get to go to those dances that the older kids go to all the time, and you won't have a girlfriend, and you won't go on dates and kiss and stuff and—"_

"_Why would I care about that stuff? And who says I'll never have a girlfriend? I can have a girlfriend if I'm a grown-up!" Edward protested, wrinkling his nose, forgetting how close he was holding his companion._

"_Really? I don't believe you. Once your grown-up, you'll have to spend all your time working for that dumb military. You won't have _time_ for a girlfriend!" Winry said triumphantly, sticking her tongue out at the end for effect._

"_I already have a girlfriend," Edward decided quickly._

"_Really? Have you _kissed_ her?" Winry's voice was tinged with a subtle jealousy._

_Edward grinned and hastily planted his lips onto Winry's, ignoring her confused and slightly angry expression._

_Her lips and face were still wet from her recent crying jag, but he didn't really care. She smelled nice; a mix of her apple pies and daisies. Yes, pie and flowers. _Too cute_, he thought in the back of his mind._

_A moment later he pulled away, leaving his blonde mechanic stunned._

"_Now I have. Promise you'll wait for me while I'm gone?" he asked, switching the subject with a cocky grin._

_She nodded mutely and watched as he stood up, stretching._

"_You know, you're kinda cute, when you're not throwing stuff at me," he said as he ambled towards the door._

And you're kinda cute when you're not being a jerk_, Winry thought._

_But she never would say that to his face._

"So, did you wait for me while I was gone?" Edward asked with a smirk, leaning on the desktop with his flesh elbow.

Winry felt her face turn red. "Don't boyfriends usually kiss their girlfriends more than once, and remember that they're together, and not call them ugly or freaky or all those other stupid names you called me?"

"I can make up for that now. I mean, Alphonse is in Dublith, and old lady Pinako's in town…" The alchemist grinned cheekily. "We can just pick up where we left off."

She turned her head to face him, her face straight but her eyes telling him there was nothing else she'd rather do. "Really? You expect me to go along with that after, what, five, six years?"

"…I was hoping, yeah."

She grinned. "You're lucky I can do more than kiss and make automail."

"You? Do more than kiss?" Edward chuckled. "Somehow, Winry, I don't believe you."

She grinned. "Then let me prove you wrong."

**And it ends...**

**My little mini-innuendo-thing at the end. ;) Yeah, I'm a nerd. But hey... They're seventeen years old. Let them be horny teens once in a while!**

**Reviews appreciated!**


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